


A Class of One

by liliaeth



Category: Spider-Man (Ultimateverse)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 20:26:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liliaeth/pseuds/liliaeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life didn't end with death, Fury helps him get back on his feet</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Class of One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mark (Mark_C)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mark_C/gifts).



Peter was still half asleep when he first opened his eyes. His body was hurting. He didn’t even bother trying to look around, because moving even an inch felt as bad as being attacked by a hail of Sandman. It was hard to breathe. There was something over his mouth and nose. And when he did open his eyes, he quickly had to close them not to be startled by the glare of light above him.

His hand reached for the thing covering his face, but he was too weak to push it away. He could feel something on his hand and he lifted it, just close enough to look at whatever was on it. A clip.

“Where?” The word came out as a pained gasp. But nobody answered. He fell into unconsciousness before the anyone came in to see what was going on.

He didn’t stay under too long.

When he woke up again, there was someone sitting on the chair next to his bed. He stared around, desperately trying to get up.

“Leave it be, Peter.”

He recognized the voice before he saw the face.

Fury.

“What?” The word came out gargled, muffled by what he realized was an oxygen mask.

“You’re alive, in case you’re wondering.”

“Good,” Peter whispered. “Or I would have thought I’d gone to hell.”

Well, that was what he tried to say.

“We thought we lost you. We did lose you.” Fury sounded more human than Peter could ever have imagined him being. “And then something happened to your body, and you’re back. Damaged, but back.”

Peter tried to get up again, Fury put his hands on him and stopped him.

“Everyone thinks you’re dead.”

“My aunt?”

Fury hesitated. “Her too. I’m sorry.”

And Peter fell back in his pillow, crying, thinking of how much it would hurt Aunt May, thinking he was gone, how it would break her.

“I have to tell her.”

“Peter.”

“I have to. I can’t let her keep thinking I’m dead. I can’t do that to her, or to MJ, or Gwen or… I can’t hurt my friends that way.”

“Peter, you died. And you’re still weak.”

Peter pulled the oxygen mask down, staring up at Fury.

“They’re not safe, Peter.” Peter stared at him, asking without words.

“They know your name. If you go back, if you tell your aunt, and she starts acting differently, like she knows, then you’re putting her in danger. Because far too many of your enemies would go after her to get back at you.”

Oh God. Peter froze, thinking about the Kingpin, and how he’d had Moon Knight’s alter ego attack Peter’s school just to call him out. About Osborn, and how he’d tried to kill Aunt May.

“I’m sorry, Peter. But if you care about her, the best thing you can do for her is to let her keep thinking you’re dead.  You can reach out to her when the attention’s died down, when it’s safe, but for now…”

Peter didn’t even care how much it hurt after that: he just turned away from Fury, refusing to let the man see him cry.

“It’s all right, Peter. You’ll see, everything will be fine.”

 

*****

The next few weeks were quiet. Peter recovered quickly from his physical injuries, but every second of every day he had to fight the urge to run out and head off to his aunt. He still couldn’t believe it when he watched the news and they talked about his funeral, when he saw the papers covering the “event”.

People had hated him for so long that seeing people mourn him was almost impossible to believe. Nearly as hard as believing in Fury as a nice guy.

Peter was almost happy when Fury gave up the nice guy act and started pulling him into training. Fury said it was a way to get him off his mopey ass. Peter couldn’t disagree, and at least it kept him from thinking about Aunt May. For a few seconds at least.

Peter had thought he’d been in a good condition before Fury started on him. But by the time they’d been a month into training, Peter barely even recognized himself in action.

It wasn’t just the training, but also getting used to the changes in his body. He was stronger now, and he’d somehow acquired organic webbing. He tried not to think about it, because if he did, he’d probably freak out about how inhuman that made him.

By the time Fury declared him ready to leave the compound, Peter had gone far beyond walking on the walls and ceilings. In fact, Fury had started ordering him to clean said walls and ceiling if he kept using them to pace on.

He wasn’t out on his own. Fury still didn’t think he was ready for that. But just being able to go out and get something to eat amongst regular people felt freeing in a way that wandering around the Triskelion would never allow, no matter how much freedom Fury allowed him to have. Well as long as he was ‘disguised’. A cap to keep his face in shadows, clothes that made him look older than his age. He was a veritable spy undercover, Fury would be proud.

He almost thought he was hallucinating when he saw him.

Spider-Man. The costume was different, somewhat, but it was so clearly based on his.

He tried to think back on the clones, trying to remember how many of them, other than Jessica, had gotten away. It ate at his gut, thinking one of them might have survived, that the face underneath that mask might be his, that the clone might have gone to Aunt May, stolen his life.

“Peter.” He stared up at Clint, the SHIELD agent accompanying him today.  “How.”

“We don’t know, yet. He showed up a few weeks ago. The only thing we do know is that he isn’t one of the clones.”

Peter wasn’t even aware that he was holding his breath until he released it.

“He’s been doing your job, but he’s new, inexperienced, untrained.”

“Why didn’t Fury tell me?”

“I think, I think he wanted you to find out for yourself. I think he wants you to pull the kid in.”

Peter pulled his cap closer, desperate to hide his face. He didn’t need for Clint to finish the thought: pull the kid in, before he got himself killed the way that Peter did.

“Before someone thinks he’s you and goes after your aunt.” Clint said instead.

“I need to…”

“It’s already arranged. We’re meeting with your aunt and girlfriends in an hour.”

It took Peter a moment to realize that Clint was talking about MJ and Gwen. He didn’t bother correcting the man. He couldn’t possibly understand. And the guy hadn’t even brought up Kitty yet.

He wondered what it was all for. Was he even needed anymore, if there was already someone else out there, taking his place?

And then the chaos started and for the first time in years he knew what it felt like to be in a crowd and watch as Spider-Man saved the day. It was weird, plain and simple.

He didn’t even recognize the bad guy. Had he been out of town that long, that he didn’t even remember the local trouble-makers? Or was the group just that new? Dressed in armour, going on about some kind of serpent. Clint seemed to know who they were, but that at least was to be expected.

Spider-Man, the other Spider-Man, didn’t even seem to be doing all that bad at first. He was  maybe a bit too hesitant, too quiet, but he seemed to be getting in the swing of things, just as an energy blast seemed to come out of nowhere and hit the newbie as he was avoiding another attack from the front.

Peter winced in his place. Even as the new kid got back up to his feet.

Clint clearly wanted to get involved as much as Peter did. And for a moment Peter considered obeying orders, doing nothing. But then he noticed how the new Spider-kid was still stumbling, probably clearing his head as another attack was already coming in and Peter couldn’t just… let it happen.

He fell into the middle of battle, knowing instinctively where the hits were going to come, where his opponents weakest most defenseless spots were. He used his new skills in martial arts to tear apart their machinery and kick their asses until the new Spider-Man finally kicked back in gear and helped him mop up the last bad guy.

Peter didn’t stay long after saving the boy before running off. It was easier to lose the kid than he’d thought it would be.

Or at least, he’d thought he was. He should have known better, oldest trick in the book.

Until Peter landed on a roof and sat there, overlooking the city, and a voice called his name.

“Peter Parker?” He turned around, facing the other Spider-Man. Looking at the mask, the darker costume.

He didn’t move. He just stood there. Part of him wanted to attack the guy, to make him stop wearing the costume.

“You’re not Spider-Man.”

The kid seemed shy, unsure, and then he pulled off his mask and Peter looked up a bright young face. Dark skin, brown eyes, younger even than himself.

“No, you are.”

“So why?”

“Because you were gone, and I didn’t do anything to help. So when you died, I … knew I had to do something, to make up for it.”

Peter couldn’t help but think of his uncle Ben, and how he’d lost the man.

“What’s your name?” he asked,  his mind going a hundred miles an hour. He barely even heard the answer.

And they stood there, version 1.0 and the latest update.

He wasn’t needed as Spider-Man, he could let the new kid take over, he could take Aunt May and run, he could go back to MJ and beg her to take him back, focus on dates and schools and all those things a teenage boy should be thinking about…

The kid looked so much younger, so much more innocent than Peter himself.

“Welcome to the club,” he said instead.

Miles didn’t even take all that much convincing to follow him.

Peter wondered what Fury would think of Peter bringing home a classmate.

He didn’t care. He was going to see his aunt, and right now, that was all that mattered.

 

fin

**Author's Note:**

> Coudln't bring in more of May and MJ, but somehow this is where my muse led me, hoping you'll still like it.


End file.
